A field report by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, reveals a leak in an underwater gas pipeline that belongs to Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, at Kalaba community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State on Saturday.

The report, by Mr Morris Alagoa, Head of Field Operations at ERA/FoEN, revealed that the gas leakage came from an underwater gas pipeline beneath Taylor Creek. ERA/FoEN, a civil society group, noted that the gas leaking at high pressure was causing giant bubbles in Taylor Creek which serves as the sole source of water for the communities.

“What we are seeing is the bubbling of gas leaking from NOAC’s pipeline. This was discovered in the early hours of Saturday. I got to hear about it first when some children were shouting that oil was bubbling and that there was a leakage.

“As a trained field monitor, I also came around to see what was happening in the environment, whether what I heard was true. When I paddled down here by canoe, I discovered that it was true, gas was actually bubbling.

“Incidentally, this Creek is our only source of drinking water and where we carry out almost all domestic activities. Right now, the water is polluted.

“As a monitor of the environment, I promptly informed the ERA/FoEN because, that is the organisation we know that has been helping us to reach out to Agip whenever such things happen,” the report said.

It advised the oil firm to immediately deploy to the site and shut the source of the gas leak to forestall further pollution of the environment and exposure of residents to toxic associated gas.

Vanguard